Clack WS1 Not Softening

I have been using a Clack WS-1 CS version a 1" water softener that for almost 5 years was working fine. All of a sudden I noticed my water getting hard so I thought maybe I had forgotten to add salt so I went to check on it. I opened the tank and it was full of salt and for the past couple of months I have noticed that the salt is not going down even after forced regenerations.

So I need help in troubleshooting the unit to see what is going on.

I bought this unit from Gary Slusher in April 2007 and have been quite satisfied with the unit until now.

After five years of enjoying soft water I can honestly say that hard water sucks!

Is there more water in the salt tank than normal? Can you step the unit through each cycle? If so, put unit into a draw cycle to see if it has suction. If it has no suction, that the venturi may be clogged. Put the unit into a fill cycle and see if it will fill the brine tank. If not, then the brine flow control may be clogged.

First check that there are no loose brine line compression fittings (you have two in the salt tank [top and bottom of the float valve] and one on the control valve) and that there is no hollow spot under the surface of the salt; that's called a salt bridge and it prevents salt from being dissolved by water and the softener has been regenerating without any salt.

Regardless of what's wrong, when you get it 'fixed', you follow the instructions I sent you when you bought the softener and do 2 manual regenerations at the salt dose of 15 lbs/cuft of resin you have.